Sunday 4 May 1941

Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag at the Kroll Opera House, 4 May 1941. Visible behind him is Hermann Goering, who technically is the leader of the Reichstag.

Anglo-Iraq War: The British on 4 May 1941 continue their successful defense of Habbaniyah Airfield, Basra and their other fortified positions in Iraq. The RAF has complete control of the air. British reinforcements, called "Iraqforce," are now on the march to Iraq from Palestine and Transjordan (Habforce and Kingcol), while men are trickling into Basra from India. The motley group of British ground forces in Habbaniyah already are having some success forcing the Iraqis back toward Baghdad, suggesting they will be able to hold out until the relief arrives.

The RAF raids the Iraqi forces, including Baghdad (where it drops leaflets) and other enemy areas. The Luftwaffe has a small presence at Mosul Airfield for receiving supplies via Vichy Syria, which the RAF also attacks.

There still is Iraqi resistance at Basra, where Iraqi gunboats and merchantmen remain outside of British control. Australian sloop HMAS Yarra arrives there today to help deal with the Iraqi shipping.

A Messerschmitt Bf 110D3 Zerstorer IAF 4.ZG76 in Iraqi markings, Mosul Iraq May 1941.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe continues bombing Liverpool. The May Blitz is notable for its ferocity and accuracy. The Germans have refined their techniques and finally are targeting port infrastructure and vulnerable shipping in the harbor with great success. The aftereffects of the devastating explosion of 7649-ton ammunition ship Malakand on the 3rd continue to be felt there, and 295-ton ship Pneumatic Elevator No. 11 sinks due to the blast effects, adding to the numerous ships sunk or damaged. Other ships damaged today by the Luftwaffe include:

• 274-ton tug Bison
• 10,254-ton liner Talthybius
• 7005-ton freighter Baron Inchcape
• 201-ton tug Hornby
• 99-ton tug Enid Blanche
• 719-ton hopper barge No. 33
• 209-ton barge Aid
• 67-ton flat John
• 46-ton sailing barge Bongo
• 7801-ton freighter Roxburgh Castle.

Some of the ships are repaired, but others are hit in subsequent raids and destroyed. The port is devastated and in chaos, with many ships on fire, others slowly sinking, and new ships still being docked and unloaded. There are separate attacks by 55 bombers targets Barrow-in-Furness, and 17 bombers on Hartlepool, with a small force hitting Middlesbrough. The Germans lose a couple of Junkers Ju 88s, one to engine failure, another to a night fighter.

Joseph Goebbels and Joachim Ribbentrop give the Hitler Salute at the 4  May 1941 speech by Adolf Hitler at the Kroll Opera House (Federal Archives).

East African Campaign: The 5th Indian Division, which has been advancing from the south, attacks the Italian positions at Amba Alagi. The Italians, though somewhat distracted by a separate attack coming up the Falaga Pass, are dug in and give little ground. The Gold Coast 24th Infantry Brigade attacks Italian positions at Wadara in Galla-Sidamo, while the Indian troops at Amba Alagi do capture a few foothills (Pyramid, Whale Back, and Elephant ). From here the going becomes steeper and more open to Italian fire.

Another British force is heading south toward the city, with a third force, the South Africans, also approaching. The Italians, meanwhile, are hiding out in caves which are very defensible, but also have no access to resupply and scant stores of even the most basic necessities such as food and water.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-38 (Kptlt. Heinrich Liebe), operating out of Lorient on her 9th and most successful patrol, is off of Freetown in the Atlantic when it fires three torpedoes and uses its deck gun to sink 5230-ton Swedish freighter Japan. The entire 55-man crew (and four passengers) makes land and survives, but is captured and interned by the Vichy French. The ship is part of Convoy OB-310. The U-38's deck gun explodes, injuring the gun crew.

The Luftwaffe hits 234-ton minesweeping trawler HMT Ben Gairn with a parachute mine at Waveney Dock, Lowestoft, Suffolk. There are no casualties, but the ship is destroyed.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 222-ton British freighter Tregor off Trevose Head. The six-man crew survives.

The Luftwaffe also damages 545-ton Belgian freighter Marie Flore off Trevose Head. Marie Flore tries to make it to port but cannot get there and is beached at Padstow.

The Luftwaffe also damages destroyer HMS Southdown in the North Sea by a near miss. The ship is leaking and temporarily loses steering but makes it to port.

The Luftwaffe damages minesweeper Selkirk and patrol yacht HMY Franc Tireur in the Thames Estuary. Both ships make it back for repairs.

Royal Navy minesweeper HMS Latona (Captain Stuart L. Bateson) is commissioned.

Battle of the Mediterranean: German General Paulus, temporarily in command of the Afrika Korps, seen enough of the abortive attack on Tobruk. He orders that no more attacks be made by Rommel's forces unless there are signs of Allied retreat. Paulus already is looking toward his rear and orders that a new defensive line must be built in Gazala. In this sense, he is basically in agreement with the failed Italian strategy which began the campaign, believing in the value of fixed defensive positions in the defensive rather than Rommel's faith in mobile operations. Rommel dutifully begins constructing defensive outposts facing the Tobruk perimeter. From this point forward for the next couple of months, the Germans and Australians will engage in only local actions, with the Germans holding their small three-mile wide incursion into Tobruk's defenses.

The campaign evolves into competing supply buildups between Germany and Great Britain, with both sides holding unique advances in that struggle (the Royal Navy largely controls the sea and can be supplied from India, Australia, and New Zealand in addition to England, while the Axis has a short, though dangerous, supply route from Italy).

Churchill cables his Middle East commander General Archibald Wavell in Cairo. He states that is is "most important not to allow fighting around Tobruk to die down" due to the Germans' over-extension following his "premature audacious advance." He encourages counterattacks "at the earliest possible moment" to prevent the Afrika Korps from being able to "gather supplies and strength for a forward move." Churchill and Paulus, thus, see the North Africa campaign developing the same way, and this is not a coincidence, as the British are reading the German codes via the Ultra decryption program.

Churchill also notes in his cable the "success of Demon." This is a reference to Operation Demon, a daring gamble of running disguised freighters directly through the Mediterranean to Egypt. In fact, one Demon ship already has been sunk, though two have made it through.

New Zealand Major-General Bernard Freyberg, the British leader in Crete, is feeling a bit exposed now that the Germans have had some time to digest the Greek mainland. He asks Wavell for permission to evacuate about 10,000 men who are refugees from the mainland and, by and large, unarmed. He notes that they have "little or no employment other than getting into trouble with the civil population."

The Germans occupy the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios.

Italian torpedo boat Giuseppe La Farina hits a mine and sinks off Kerkennah. The Italians are busy supplying the Afrika Korps in Tripoli and today send a convoy of seven troopships from Naples. The Italians provide a heavy escort three light cruisers and 8 destroyers, with some smaller torpedo boats also involved.

At Malta, the Luftwaffe remains active. Minesweeper HMS Fermoy, which was damaged earlier in the month and under repair, sinks from its damage.

Santa Fe Excursion train, 4 May 1941.

War Crimes: The Luftwaffe damages 7117-ton hospital ship Karapara in Tobruk Harbour. While accidents happen, hospital ships are clearly marked and there have been many incidents involving them. The Karapara makes it to Port Said for repairs. While there may seem little to gain by attacking hospital ships, driving them off or destroying them isolates the Australians holding out in Tobruk.

Anglo/US Relations: Churchill cables President Roosevelt and suggests that the Royal Navy is seriously considering occupying the Canary Islands (which he never actually names) and other Portuguese islands in the Atlantic in order to forestall a Wehrmacht occupation there. The US, he proposes, would serve as the "guarantor" that those islands would be returned to Portugal after the war. He also notes that "We are determined to fight to the last inch and ounce for Egypt, including its outposts of Tobruk and Crete."

Anglo/Portuguese Relations: Perhaps coincidental to Churchill's cable to President Roosevelt (but perhaps not), Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, on his way to New York, calls on Portuguese Prime Minister Dr. Salazar in Lisbon. Salazar, Menzies writes in his diary, is "very sincere and earnest" and tells Menzies that "The Portuguese won't fight." Of course, the Portuguese are in no danger so long as Spain remains neutral, though Hitler still dreams of drawing Franco into his collection of satellites and then occupying Portugal and its Atlantic islands.

German Military: While Adolf Hitler already has set the date for Operation Barbarossa as 22 June 1941, not everyone agrees with the decision. In fact, there is little enthusiasm for it within the uppermost reaches of the German government and military, including by Luftwaffe boss Hermann Goering. Admiral Raeder continues to press for his "peripheral strategy," which focuses on cutting off Great Britain's overseas possessions in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. That strategy to date has had great success, but the British remain entrenched in Egypt and at Gibraltar. The vast mass of the Wehrmacht, however, already is positioned in the East, and Hitler sticks with his plan to invade the Soviet Union.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt attends the dedication ceremony for the Home of Woodrow Wilson. Staunton, VA, May 4, 1941. FDR gives a speech on "The Power of Spiritual Force" (Margaret Suckley, FDR Presidential Library and Museum).

US Military: Brig. Gen. Henry B. Clagett, with his chief of staff Col. Harold Huston George, arrive at Manila in the Philippines to command the newly created Philippine Department Air Force. They arrive on a Boeing 314 Clipper (Pan-American Air Lines). Their mission is to expand the air defenses in the Philippines.

Soviet Government: The Politburo replaces Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov with Joseph Stalin as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. This makes Stalin the de jure head of the Soviet government These appointments in the USSR are mere formalities, though, as there is no question that Stalin runs the government and always is the de facto national leader.

Hitler and Goering on 4 May 1941.

German Government: Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag in the Kroll Opera House (the Reichstag building itself has been unusable since the infamous fire several years ago). As often happens during his wartime speeches, Hitler sums up past events rather than giving a specific preview of coming events. In essence, it is a victory speech and covers events from the beginning of the war to date.

Hitler digs deep, delivering a polemic on why Germany is at war that is based on equal parts paranoia, self-delusion, and outright fabrications. He propounds some of his standard themes - that Germany was forced into the war based on decisions taken by others "as early as 1936," that the plot against Germany was formed by "great international Jewish financial interests," and that "this criminal" Winston Churchill (he also terms him a "fool" and a "drunkard") was personally responsible for the blockade and aerial campaign against the Reich.

Hitler also puts forth an economic argument for German policy in the Balkans - which obviously involves a lot of Wehrmacht military activity. He argues that reliance on money, or "worthless democratic money paper" as he puts it, is inherently unfair, and only mutual trade agreements such as those between the Reich and the Balkan states is fair. The wars that Germany has just won were the product of "filthy British politics" which had duped Romania, Yugoslavia, and Greece and had forced a defensive campaign by the Wehrmacht to protect its southeast flank.

Hitler summarizes the Greek Campaign (Operation Marita) by claiming that Churchill had committed "one of the greatest strategic blunders of this war" by trying to garrison and defend it. He credits the order to attack Yugoslavia to the coup there. He notes that "the Greek soldiers have fought with the greatest bravery and contempt of death," and that the British force in Greece was there to attack the Reich and thus had to be removed. He gives figures of 57 officers and 1042 noncommissioned officers and men killed, 181 officers and 3571 noncommissioned officers and men wounded, and 13 officers and 372 noncommissioned officers and men wounded. Regarding future operations, he merely states that he views them with "perfect tranquillity and great confidence."

Needless to say, the speech is pure propaganda. Churchill's belated and inadequate military aid to Greece turned out to do nothing but offer Hitler a convenient excuse for why he attacked. No mention is made in the speech, of course, of Hitler's intense preparations for invading Greece long before the first British boot set foot there.

Singapore: Winston Churchill asks General Ismay for a "report on the efficiency of the gunners and personnel" manning air defenses in Singapore.

Romania: Madeleine Cantacuzino (soon to be Madeleine Lipatti) and Dinu Lipatti gave the first Romanian performance of Lipatti’s Symphonie concertante for two pianos and strings.

American Homeland: There is a concert held for the Deutsches Kriegshilfswerk [German war workers] at the California Hall in San Francisco, California. There is a strong German presence in San Francisco, where the Germans maintain a consulate.

Future History: Nickolas Ashford is born in Fairfield, South Carolina. He will become half of the famous singing group Ashford & Simpson. He will pass away in 2011.

Baseball in San Bruno Park, California on May 4, 1941 (Fred Beltramo, San Bruno Public Library).

May 1941

May 1, 1941: British Hold Tobruk
May 2, 1941: Anglo-Iraq War
May 3, 1941: Liverpool Hammered
May 4, 1941: Hitler Victory Speech
May 5, 1941: Patriots Day
May 6, 1941: Stalin In Command
May 7, 1941: May Blitz
May 8, 1941: Pinguin Sunk
May 9, 1941: U-110 Captured
May 10, 1941: Hess Flies Into History
May 11, 1941: The Hess Peace Plan
May 12, 1941: Tiger Arrives Safely
May 13, 1941: Keitel's Illegal Order
May 14, 1941: Holocaust in Paris
May 15, 1941: Operation Brevity
May 16, 1941: Blitz Ends
May 17, 1941: Habbaniya Relieved
May 18, 1941: Croatia Partitioned
May 19, 1941: Bismarck at Sea
May 20, 1941: Invasion of Crete
May 21, 1941: Robin Moore Sinking
May 22, 1941: Royal Navy Destruction Off Crete
May 23, 1941: Crete Must Be Won
May 24, 1941: Bismarck Sinks Hood
May 25, 1941: Lütjens' Brilliant Maneuver
May 26, 1941: Bismarck Stopped
May 27, 1941: Bismarck Sunk
May 28, 1941: Crete Lost
May 29, 1941: Royal Navy Mauled Off Crete
May 30, 1941: Sorge Warns, Stalin Ignores
May 31, 1941: British Take Baghdad

2020

Friday 19 July 1940

General Dietl, the first recipient of the Oak Leaves on 19 July 1940.

German Government: In a speech on 19 July 1940 made to the Reichstag but intended for international distribution, Adolf Hitler confirms the doubts expressed in his 16 July 1940 Directive No. 15 regarding Operation Sea Lion. As stated in the directive, he would prefer not to have to invade England. What he has in mind as a settlement is unknown, but he is the only one making peace offers - the British are adamantly opposed to even considering the idea.

In this hour, I feel it to be my duty before my own conscience to appeal once more to reason and common sense in Great Britain as much as elsewhere. I consider myself in a position to make this appeal, since I am not a vanquished foe begging favors, but the victor, speaking in the name of reason. I can see no reason why this war need go on. I am grieved to think of the sacrifices it must claim.

Hitler adds that if Churchill ignores him, "I shall have relieved my conscience in regard to the things to come." He somewhat dilutes the "peace" offer, though, with some rather fanciful trash talk:

Fighting alone all these weeks on the Channel front, Jagdgeschwader 51 has already shot down 150 of the enemy's aircraft, quite enough to weaken him seriously. Think now of all the bombers we can parade in the English sky. The few R.A.F. fighters will not be able to cope. 

The timing of the speech suggests that the start of the true Battle of Britain is not 10 July, as the British claim, but August as the Germans maintain. The British date is somewhat arbitrary, as the Luftwaffe had been staging raids during late June. US journalist William Shirer considers the speech a "masterpiece," though of little value as a basis of peace. He considers Hitler the "finest liar in History."

The British government takes its time refusing the peace offer, but the BBC - on its own initiative - immediately rejects it. The Germans use the speech as the basis of a propaganda campaign, dropping leaflets with that theme in London. This is the last open peace proposal of any kind between the UK and Germany before the closing days of the Reich, though there are various half-hearted attempts by the Germans to start some kind of negotiations along the way.

It is easy to dismiss Hitler's proposal. However, to him, it is quite serious - he does not want to invade and probably knows that he can't launch a successful invasion. As for the British, while Churchill is adamantly opposed to the mere idea of negotiations, there is a large faction headed by Lord Halifax within the British War Cabinet that believes there is no harm with at least discussing the matter with the Germans even if nothing comes of it.

Of more importance to the future conduct of the war, Hitler stages the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony at the Kroll Opera House. For the first time, he elevates Generals to the rank of Field Marshal, a rank banned under the Treaty of Versailles:

• Colonel-General Walther von Brauchitsch
• Colonel-General Fedor von Bock
• Luftwaffe General Albert Kesselring
• Colonel-General Wilhelm Keitel
• Colonel-General Günther von Kluge
• Colonel-General Wilhelm von Leeb
• Colonel-General Wilhelm List
• Colonel-General Erhard Milch
• Colonel-General Walther von Reichenau
• Colonel-General Gerd von Rundstedt
• General Hugo Sperrle
• Colonel-General Erwin von Witzleben

Hermann Goering, Hitler's chosen successor, receives the new ranks of Reich Marshal of the Greater Reich, or Reichsmarschall. This maintains his status as a sort of Vice President of the Reich.

As a special gesture toward one of his favorite Generals, Hitler bestows the first Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross upon Eduard Dietl, who managed to avoid either being defeated or forced to flee into internment in Sweden during the Battle of Narvik. There are other awards, such as the award of the Knight's Cross to Major Michael Pössinger. While military rank, of course, is always important, the huge separate track of medals created by the Wehrmacht is often more important in terms of how a soldier is perceived. A major with a Ritterkreuz has infinitely more status in the eyes of his comrades, for instance than a mere office General. Rank confers power, but top medals grant unique status.

Hitler at the Kroll Opera House before the Reichstag, 19 July 1940 (Federal Archive).

Battle of Britain: Overall, it is a bad day for the RAF, not so much do the number of losses, but what the day means about part of the British fighter force. The weather is fair, good enough for most flying operations.

The Luftwaffe bombs the RAF airfield at Norwich at first light, destroying a hangar.

Bolton Paul Defiants remain front-line fighters for the RAF. In the morning, a formation from RAF No.141 Squadron intercepts some Bf 109Es south of Folkestone during a Luftwaffe raid on shipping. The Messerschmitts make mincemeat of the Defiants, shooting down 6 and damaging another with one loss to themselves. The Battle of Britain shows that 2-seat fighters on both sides are not quite ready for prime-time, especially ones like the Defiants which rather incredibly have no forward armament. More Defiants likely would have been lost if not for the timely intercession of Hurricanes from RAF No. 111 Squadron.

The action is made much, much worse than just the loss of fighters due to the fact that 10 pilots/crew perish. Three Hurricanes go down in the action as well.

The Luftwaffe sends four Dornier Do 17s against the Rolls Royce engine factory at Glasgow. There are 42 casualties.

The Luftwaffe again raids Dover at 14:00 to disperse British Royal Navy ships preparing to meet any invasion. The destroyer HMS Griffin is damaged by near misses. Destroyer HMS Beagle also is damaged off Dover by near misses. The 5574-ton British tanker HMS War Sepoy is damaged by the attack in Dover Harbor and ultimately sinks, used as a blockship. British 550 ton trawler HMS Crestflower also sinks, with two deaths.

During the night, the Luftwaffe sends bombers from KG55 to attack the port of Southampton, with the Germans losing on Heinkel 111.

The Luftwaffe lays mines in the Thames estuary during the night.

Luftwaffe III,/LG1, a Junkers 88 formation based at Lille, has a new Gruppenkommandeur. Hptm. Karl-Friedrich Knust is appointed in place of Major Dr. Ernst Bormann.

European Air Operations: The RAF Bomber Command makes night raids on northern German ports and on Channel ports where barges are being assembled for an invasion. Coastal Command attacks naval bases at Emden and Harlingen. Among the targets is the battleship Tirpitz, still under construction at Wilhelmshaven, and Admiral Scheer.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-62 (Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Bernhard Michalowski) torpedoes and sinks 4581-ton British iron freighter Pearlmoor in the Western Approaches. There are 26 survivors and 13 perish. The ship is a straggler from Convoy Sl-38.

German raider Thor sinks Dutch freighter Tela off Brazil after taking the 33 crew prisoner.

The Kriegsmarine lays mines in the North Sea.

Convoy HX 59 departs from Halifax.

British corvette HMS Bluebell (K 80, Lt. Commander Robert E. Sherwood) is commissioned.

HMAS Sydney.

Battle of the Mediterranean: The Australian cruiser HMAS cruiser Sydney, escorted by five destroyers, intercepts Italian cruisers Bartolomeo Colleoni and Giovanni delle Bande Nere off Crete. In the Battle of Cape Spada, the Colleoni sinks and the Sydney and Bande Nere are damaged. Sydney retreats under pressure from Regia Aeronautica bombers, Bande Nere to Benghazi. Royal Navy destroyers pick up 525 survivors from the Bande Nere. RN destroyer Havock is badly damaged by air attack but makes it back to Alexandria.

At Malta, there is an air raid shortly after noontime. Two Gloster Gladiators defending the island are damaged by air raids, but they prevent any bombs from being dropped. There is now only one serviceable aircraft left, aptly nicknamed "Faith." The other two Gladiators and a Hurricane can be repaired with a little time, but reinforcements from Egypt or England are difficult.

Applied Science: The British radar research center (TRE) at Swanage receives its first prototype cavity magnetron.

US/Latin American Relations: Cruisers USS Wichita (CA 45) and Quincy (CA 39), meeting by destroyers Wainwright and Walke, arrive at Rio de Janeiro on their "show the flag" mission. The destroyers transfer a marine contingent to the cruisers.

Soviet/Baltic States Relations: The Soviets continue their purge of former Baltic States leaders. They deport Estonian General Johan Laidoner to Siberia. Others, of course, are simply being shot with little fanfare.

Denmark: The government, under German domination, withdraws from the increasingly irrelevant League of Nations.

British Government: There is a major shakeup of the military.

General Sir Alan Brooke, former commander of the BEF, is appointed Commander in Chief, Home Forces. He replaces General Edmund Ironside. Churchill makes the change because he gets along better with Brooke, who secretly feels that Churchill has a wobbly sense of military strategy. This completes Ironside's dramatic fall from grace since the Battle of France, but at least he is promoted to Field Marshal as he retires.

General Claude Auchinleck, who has been in charge of British Egyptian forces, becomes the commander of Southern Command.

The British Army Intelligence Corps forms. Churchill also wishes for commando operations to be centralized and coordinated in a Special Operations Executive (SOE). He also suggests forming a foreign legion, like the French Foreign Legion.

Canadian Government: The new commander of the Canadian 1st Corps. is General Andrew McNaughton.

Japanese Government: The new government is much more militaristic and looks toward nearby French possessions as possible targets.

American Government: President Roosevelt receives and quickly signs the Vinson-Walsh Act (the Two-Ocean Navy Act). There are 1,325,000 tons of ships and 15,000 naval aircraft authorized in order to create two separate navies on both coasts. The ambitious plan is for 35 battleships, 20 carriers, and 88 cruisers.

Roosevelt accepts the Democratic nomination for President.

British Homefront: The British are setting up internment camps on the Isle of Wight for German and Italian nationals caught up in the war. Conditions are quite poor, with not enough food or shelter. Many of those imprisoned actually are anti-German refugees, but their official documents just list them as German.

Future History: Dennis Cole is born. He becomes famous as an American television actor in such productions as The Love Boat and Charlie's Angels.

Hermann Goering's official portrait taken on 19 July 1940 by Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. He is holding his new Reichsmarschall baton (he must have known this was coming, those batons are hand-crafted and take time to prepare). It includes a note in Goering's own hand. The photo is said to be retouched to make him appear thinner.

July 1940

July 1, 1940: Vichy France
July 2, 1940: Arandora Star
July 3, 1940: Operation Catapult at Mers El Kébir
July 4, 1940: Romania In Crisis
July 5, 1940: The Five Freedoms
July 6, 1940: Hitler's High Point
July 7 1940: Dakar And Ringo
July 8, 1940: Tea Rationing in England
July 9, 1940: Battle of Calabria
July 10, 1940: Battle of Britain Begins
July 11, 1940: "Nous, Philippe Petain"
July 12, 1940: Enter Laval
July 13, 1940: German Surface Raiders Attack!
July 14, 1940: Bastille/Mourning Day
July 15, 1940: Tallest Man Dies
July 16, 1940: Plans for Sea Lion
July 17, 1940: Burma Road Closed
July 18, 1940: FDR Runs Again
July 19, 1940: Last Appeal To Reason
July 20, 1940: First Night Fighter Victory
July 21, 1940: Soviets Absorb Baltic States
July 22, 1940: First RAF Night Fighter Victory
July 23, 1940: Invasion False Alarm
July 24, 1940: The Meknés Incident
July 25, 1940: Black Thursday for RAF
July 26, 1940: Capture The Duke?
July 27, 1940: What's Up, Doc?
July 28, 1940: Destroyers Pulled From Dover
July 29, 1940: Barbarossa On The Burner
July 30, 1940: Hitler Delays Sealion
July 31, 1940: Bloody Wednesday of Olkusz

2020